Redefining Success: How Students Interpret Success Beyond Grades

Throughout students’ education journey, their perception of success evolves significantly.  It becomes more than grades and shifts to surround a personal understanding of what success truly means to them.

By: Isabel Copeland

As transitions are being made through students’ educational journeys, their definitions of success often evolve. Instead of success being simply measured by grades, many students help to emphasize the importance of the personal meaning of success, personal fulfillment, and support systems.

Ava Giannini, ‘26, reflects on her changing perspective: “My understanding of success has changed over the years because at first, I thought success was like if you don’t succeed the first time, you would never succeed, but I’ve learned over the years that success sometimes takes a couple attempts, and failure is the best type of success.”

Keira Kirby, ‘26, emphasizes that academic achievement lies in understanding rather than achieving high grades. “Success in my academic career is not defined by a letter, but actually understanding the material.”

For Kirby, success is measured by personal fulfillment rather than achievements. “Achievements on paper look better, but only you know your personal achievements and what fulfills you. So for me, success is measured by personal fulfillments.”

Xavier Legaspi, ‘27, echoes this idea and goes on to say, “I think success is measured by fulfillment, because someone could have a C and feel like they’re successful because that’s their pace that they go in their school work.”

Ben Newell, ‘27, highlights the importance of personal satisfaction alongside academic achievement. “You definitely want to achieve things, good grades, but you also want to personally feel good about it.”

As students progress through their education, how they define success changes and evolves beyond just grades. It involves trying and failing, as well as learning from those failures. It also involves feeling good about one’s effort to succeed, as said by Newell. “You want to know that you tried your best and worked hard when you did well.”

Some students recognize the importance of having support systems, such as friends or family, to help provide support when trying to achieve success.

Leilani Hernandez, ‘26, shares, “Family has a huge role in it, especially because you’re not going to be able to succeed well in something if you don’t have a good supportive system behind you. There are times when people don’t have their family support, and that’s when friends come in to be that other support group.”

While friends and family can be a support system, they may also pressure students, potentially leading to conflicts that prevent their success.

Ethan Gutierrez, ‘27, shares, “Societal pressures do have an effect on people because, for example, I’m around a lot of smart people, so I know there’s a lot of pressure to try and compete and be as smart as those people, which makes me try harder and put a lot of excessive effort into my class.”

As there are many challenges when it comes to success, failure is often an essential part when it comes to success, and failure can often help shape one’s resilience and determination towards their personal and academic goals.

Gutierrez went on to say a quote that sticks with him,  “If you treat failure like a muscle, every time you do it, you’re going to get stronger, and you won’t fail as much.”

Similarly, Legaspi says, “There is no success without failure. You always have to fail to rise up.”

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